When the Kenyan president, Mwai Kibaki, rigged the country's election in December and returned himself to power, one assumes he did not give too much thought to the socio-economic consequences of what is, unfortunately, a rather common occurrence among Africa's political leaders.

Now we know those consequences. In the three months since, more than 1,000 people have been killed in bloody clashes between tribal rivals, the economy has spluttered almost to a halt and one of its greatest providers of foreign currency – the tourism industry – has all but dried up.

The past few months should have been peak season for safaris; instead, thousands of workers have been laid off and the owners and operators of the tented camps and lodges have been balancing on the precipice of bankruptcy. Kenya is paying a high price for Mr Kibaki's hubris.

Although tourists cancelled their Kenyan safaris in significant numbers and, more disastrously for the operators, bookings dropped sharply, most of those intrepid visitors who did choose to holiday in the wilderness areas despite the chaos reported peace and quiet.

Related Articles

Our writers – old Africa hands Brian Jackman and Gill Charlton – said when they returned that they would not have known of the simmering violence but for news reports and the presence in airport terminals of journalists such as Orla Guerin of the BBC.

Now, as a negotiated peace and a shared presidency have descended on the land, the first tentative steps are being taken to revive the tourist industry. Ironically, there has never been a better time to visit, both from the point of view of cost and of fewer fellow travellers.

Kenya has always been a price-competitive safari destination, but as our examples show, holidays there over the next few months are cheaper than ever.

Kenya has often been criticised for allowing too many minibuses and tourists into its wildlife reserves, but now wilderness areas such as the Maasai Mara are, in Brian Jackman's words, "just like the old days three decades ago – camps empty, not a minibus to be seen and cats all over the place".

If Kenya does return to the kind of political stability that has marked it as one of this turbulent continent's least volatile countries, there is little doubt that tourists will start going back.

If not, British travellers have many safari alternatives – neighbouring Tanzania and, farther south, Zambia, Botswana and South Africa are all benefiting from Kenya's problems. For the moment, though, our writers celebrate Africa's first safari destination, and offer compelling reasons for visiting.